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He hauled me out the door. “Nope, he wants both you and the locket, so that’s what he’s getting. Now shut the fuck up.”
Me? I couldn’t imagine what the wizard would need me for, except to make sure he “took care of all the loose ends”. Not good.
I dug my heels into the rug, but Officer Biffi was twice my size. I couldn’t stop him, but I could slow him down. Every moment counted. Mateo knew he was here, and help was on the way.
Biffi wrenched my arm, and I gasped at the pain as he dragged me down the stairs.
Where the hell was Prax? He could just pop in right now if Mateo let him. Why hadn’t he materialized yet? Had something happened to him? Were they both in trouble, too?
I didn’t have time to think about it because Biffi shoved me into the back of his police cruiser. I reached for the door, but as I did, he slammed it shut. The last thing I saw was the door hurtling toward my forehead. Then darkness.
Chapter 25
Mateo
I hated that I’d lied to Eva. I hated that she was in danger now because of me.
It had not been my idea to use her as bait. I’d been strongly against it, but I had been outvoted. Now that it was actually happening, I regretted not standing up to Desmon and refusing to go along with it.
“Why the long face?” Prax tapped on the steering wheel since I’d let him drive. “Aren’t you happy the idiot is taking the bait?”
“Eva never agreed to this.”
“You know we couldn’t have told her. If this wizard really can see lies, it would have given away our plot the second he laid eyes on her. He’d have known she was in on it. That would have been even more dangerous. Crocodiles, remember?”
“I remember. It still feels like I’ve betrayed her.”
“Is it really betrayal if you’re doing this to keep her safe, though?” Prax asked. “If Augustine knew she was trying to trick him, he’d take it out on her. As it stands, she’s completely innocent. Maybe he’ll even treat her well, considering he apparently needs her to use the amulet.”
It had taken a fuckton of research, but we finally figured out what we were dealing with. A few centuries ago, the last of the known catalytic talismans disappeared from historical records. It was called the Magus Scepter and looked very much like it should belong to an evil wizard. One day, it just disappeared without a trace.
Hours of research had led us down a rabbit-hole of urban legends and half-sane ramblings of madmen. The internet was chock full of them, and wizard forums were no different. Simply having magic didn’t automatically make you sane. In fact, I’d argue that there were more madmen in those forums than on the internet at large, and that was saying a lot.
It had taken Prax, Seth, and I forever to weed through the posts, discarding the truly crazy ideas, and finally settling on the theory that made the most sense.
Supposedly, the talisman had ended up in the hands of two witches who were hell-bent on making sure the artifact never made it into the wrong hands. Unable to destroy it, they’d chosen instead to hide it in plain sight by changing its form. It wasn’t the scepter itself that had the magical power, but rather an orb of silver on it. They took the orb and turned it into a locket consisting of two hearts, each one flat on one side and rounded on the other, with the flat sides slotting together to become one. Sound familiar?
As an additional safeguard, the amulet only worked if it was worn by a descendant of one of the two witches who did all this. The descendent, when wearing the locket, themselves became the final piece of the catalytic amulet. The two pieces of the locket alone were useless.
The spell had drained both witches and even their descendants of their magic, a small price to pay to prevent the scepter from ending up in the wrong hands. The two witches had then gone their separate ways, each with one half of the locket. We still didn’t know how the dragoness had ended up with one of the pieces of the puzzle, but Eva’s family had gotten the other.
Eva had mentioned that her family used to have magic but no longer did. This fit with the story perfectly. If this locket really was the scepter, then there were only two known descendants left alive—Eva and her brother Tony. Having seen what a flake Tony was, the wizard had probably decided he would rather work with Eva.
And therein lay the final hurdle. The catalytic amulet needed a living person to channel its power. I doubted Augustine would let Eva know she had power over who could use it. But with Eva, it was possible for Augustine to father a child who would rightfully own the locket. A child would be much easier to control.
Just the thought of it made me want to tear something apart.
Since Augustine needed Eva, this explained why the ghoul, despite already having the amulet in its his hand, had come back through the fridge in search of her. It also explained why no one had come for the locket at my house, even though I’d purposefully left all my wards wide open when Eva and I had gone out for food for the last few days.
Officer Biffi had been watching my home for days, that much I knew. And sure enough, the second we left Eva alone with the amulet, he’d taken the bait.
Desmon had assured me that he would throw enough resources and personnel into this plan that we would get Eva back alive and in one piece. That was the only reason I’d agreed to it in the first place. Now I regretted it. What if we couldn’t get to her in time? What if we weren’t able to track the locket? What if—
I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if something happened to her.
“Fuck the locket. I have to get to her. I shouldn’t have agreed to this.” I started the SUV and drove toward my home, ignoring the speed limit.
“Hey! Stop! Don’t you fucking mess this up now.” Prax wrestled for control of the wheel and the SUV swerved, almost hitting a signpost.
